Bad Poetry Day: When Cringing Verse Is Truly Appreciated

If there was ever a day when your poetic self would be appreciated for writing an ode to the indelicate belch last night or the very poisonous morning breath, it would be August 18 because it happens to be Bad Poetry Day. Bad Poetry day is all about reading and writing poetry that deviates from the conventional poetic topics of love, joy, sadness, admiration and veers more towards high school crushes, love for Mexican food or even the gastric distress Mexican food causes.

A special day It is indeed a special day because for better or worse, poetry must be celebrated. The special day was first celebrated by Thomas and Ruth Roy, the creators of wellcat.com who decided, in an attempt to reunite high school friends, it would be fun to write really awful verses and send them to their old high school teachers.

Learning experience While it may seem that kids, should stay away from catchy but inappropriate verses like those hailed on Bad Poetry Day but there is something to learn from it too. On Bad Poetry day, little kids can be asked to write about whatever they like in form of poems, and are encouraged that the crazier, the better. This will let the children to use their fullest creative faculties, in a fun.

Historical tradition You may think Bad Poetry Day is the result of the modern mind obsessed with the odd and ridiculous, but sample this: “All that doth flow we cannot liquid name Or else would fire and water be the same; But that is liquid which is moist and wet Fire that property can never get. Then 'tis not cold that doth the fire put out But 'tis the wet that makes it die, no doubt.” This poem, titled ‘What is liquid?’ seems to be the oldest ‘bad poem’ known to literature.